Judge Brett Kavanaugh: Government Can’t Force Christian Groups to Pay for Abortions

LIFE NEWS ^ | July 11, 2018 | Steven Ertelt

[Morgana]

President Donald Trump has nominated federal appeals court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh has taken the pro-life side in important cases and has very strong pro-life Bona fides — prompting leading pro-life groups to praise him for a sterling pro-life record.

President Trump applauded Judge Kavanaugh as someone who would apply the Constitution as written but Planned Parenthood launched a fierce attack the Supreme Court nominee, claiming he would “wreak havoc” on abortion.

In one of his most celebrated decisions, Judge Kavanaugh ruled against the Obama HHS mandate that forced Hobby Lobby, Little Sisters of the Poor and other Christian-run businesses and organizations to fund abortion drugs in their employee health care plans.

“When the Government forces someone to take an action contrary to his or her sincere religious belief (here, submitting the form) or else suffer a financial penalty (which here is huge), the Government has substantially burdened the individual’s exercise of religion. So it is in this case,” Kavanaugh wrote.

Priests for Life, a pro-life organization, was one of many that filed suit against the mandate and Kavanaugh ultimately sided with Priests for Life in its case against the HHS abortion mandate. Father Frank Pavone, National Director; Janet Morana, Executive Director, and Alveda King (niece of Martin Luther King, Jr.), full-time director of Civil Rights for the Unborn for Priests for Life, were named plaintiffs in the case. All of them informed LifeNews support Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination.

“Judge Kavanaugh understands the importance of religious liberty to all Americans,” Father Pavone said in comments to Lifenews. “That was clear in his dissenting opinion in our case, Priests for Life vs. HHS, which eventually made it to the Supreme Court. He’s exactly the kind of justice we need on the Supreme Court at this point in time.”

SIGN THE PETITION: Vote to Confirm Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh

Sarah Pitlyk, a former law clerk to Judge Kavanaugh and special counsel for the Thomas More Society, which is a leading pro-life legal group, says Kavanaugh has an excellent record and perhaps the best record of any of the finalists president Trump is considering. As she writes about the Priests for Life case:

During the Obama administration, he voted in Priests for Life v. HHS to invalidate the so-called accommodation to the contraceptive mandate, which required religious organizations to sign a form facilitating access to contraceptives for their employees. Judge Kavanaugh was one of few federal judges (Neil Gorsuch was another) to hold that the law imposed a “substantial burden” on the organizations’ exercise of religious liberty, and one of even fewer to conclude that the contraceptive-mandate accommodation violated the law. The Supreme Court later vindicated his position by vacating decisions that upheld the contraceptive-mandate accommodation.

Pitlyk also addressed a question some pro-life advocates have raised about Kavanaugh’s decision:

Second, some have wondered why Judge Kavanaugh in his Priests for Life opinion referred to a “compelling” government interest in providing women access to contraception. Again, there is a simple answer: He was describing the compelling interest that five Supreme Court justices had recognized in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014), which he was bound to apply as a lower-court judge. And after recognizing that interest, Judge Kavanaugh ruled in favor of Priests for Life, concluding that the Obamacare contraceptive-mandate accommodation violated their religious liberty — another conservative legal ruling that for social conservatives should only build confidence in his judicial philosophy.

[Bob434]

Can the gov force people to purchase something they don’t want? In this country we were free to wander around in life never payign anyone a dime for anything- we coudl eat of the land, make our own clothes, live in public lands moving from one area to another etc- and never had to pay a dime- then along comes obama and john roberts who assure us the government has the right to force us to buy health insurance against our will

I believe Kavanaugh helped formulate the idea that the government had a right to do that if I’m not mistaken?

[[And in Kavanaugh’s view, Obamacare’s individual mandate deserved to be counted as a tax, even though the law’s authors called it a “penalty.”]]

https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/07/scotus-shortlister-brett-kavanaugh-on-ob

[pgyanke]

What a radical!

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

The Obama caliphate gave us a small taste of what we would have had under the Clinton cabal had she and her FBI cohorts succeeded in stealing the election. The left calls Trump Hitler? A dictator? What freakin hypocrites after their god Obama shoved the Obamacare down people throats. That was so freakin unconstituional it was insane, to be mandated to buy a companies product just for existing. Hillary would have went much further though, she would have raised the fines through the roof and then had the law adjusted giving the government the right to seize assets for those who do not pay. It would have been her own version of Stalinism, collectivism and redistribution, redistribution to the millions of illegals that would be swarming in to change the demographics of the entire country. Without question she would have abolished ICE.

[Charles Henrickson]

In one of his most celebrated decisions, Judge Kavanaugh ruled against the Obama HHS mandate that forced Hobby Lobby, Little Sisters of the Poor and other Christian-run businesses and organizations to fund abortion drugs in their employee health care plans.

“When the Government forces someone to take an action contrary to his or her sincere religious belief (here, submitting the form) or else suffer a financial penalty (which here is huge), the Government has substantially burdened the individual’s exercise of religion. So it is in this case,” Kavanaugh wrote.

I am heartened by this decision! Religious liberty, the free exercise of one's religion--this is so essential.

[Steely Tom]

Hillary wanted to force anyone who wanted to be an MD to perform abortions, thereby weeding out Christian doctors.

I think Obamacare tried to do this too, but it was removed.

[i_robot73]

>
Can the gov force people to purchase something they don’t want? In this country we were free to wander around in life never payign anyone a dime for anything- we coudl eat of the land, make our own clothes, live in public lands moving from one area to another etc- and never had to pay a dime- then along comes obama and john roberts who assure us the government has the right to force us to buy health insurance against our will
>

Sorry, but that ship has already sailed. You’re ~100 yrs+ too late.

>
I believe Kavanaugh helped formulate the idea that the government had a right to do that if I’m not mistaken?

[[And in Kavanaugh’s view, Obamacare’s individual mandate deserved to be counted as a tax, even though the law’s authors called it a “penalty.”]]
>

Penalty vs. tax is debating from the Leftists’ POV. The ? FIRST, and *MOST* importantly is: “By what authority?”

The ‘discussion’ needed go past that, since there ISN’T any via A1S8.

If it DOES get past that basic point, then compare vs. Amendments, one by one.

4th A violation? Null/void
5th A violation? Null/void
9th? 10th? 13th?

[Amendment10]

"“When the Government forces someone to take an action contrary to his or her sincere religious belief (here, submitting the form) or else suffer a financial penalty (which here is huge), the Government has substantially burdened the individual’s exercise of religion. So it is in this case,” Kavanaugh wrote."

Before the Constitution was drafted, Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which says basically the same thing about religious freedom that Judge Kavanaugh did imo, was enacted into Virginia law.

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

Given that it is recognized that Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was precursor to basic 1st Amendment (1A) protections that the states obligated themselves to respect when they ratified the 14th Amendment, it is unconstitutional violation of 1A protections for either federal or state governments to tax Christians for abortion purposes imo.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks for posting this.

[Salvation]

BTTT!

[shanover]

“Pro life” is radical? Ok, whatever. A political party that selects who is worthy to live is reminiscent of Nazis, Soviets and Chinese among other grotesques societies.

[Kazan]

Actually, Kavanaugh has expressed the opinion that the government has a vested interest in protecting fetal rights.

Anthony Kennedy gave him credit for providing the arguments used by the four judges that voted to repeal the Obamacare mandate.

[NKP_Vet]

Wonder what Father Pavone and others calling Kavanaugh a towering prolife advocate would think of this...

Kavanaugh once donated $1000 to Richard Cordray, a pro abortion Ohio politician.
https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/trump-pick-for-justice-rich-cordray-campaign-donor/i79sJ5EMGczP2RSFSFo27N/